BGR By Briley Kenney Feb. 8, 2026
You would think that NASA has everything ironed out for its biggest mission series yet: the Artemis missions, which will eventually send a crew of astronauts to the lunar surface. But as Artemis II gears up to launch and the rocket is prepared for takeoff, NASA is still adapting, though not necessarily for the better.
For example, the Artemis II Orion craft had a potentially dangerous flaw that saw NASA adjusting its reentry trajectory to address it. That flaw was originally discovered during the Artemis I mission, when the craft's heat shield saw char loss. Meanwhile, the new spacesuits pose another big problem: They will reportedly be heavier and bulkier than those worn during the Apollo missions (dubbed the Armstrong spacesuit). After over half a century, the astronauts will be wearing suits that have taken a step backwards in the heft department. It may not seem concerning since they'll be bouncing around in zero gravity, but former astronauts put that idea to bed. Being on the moon will actually create "extreme physical stress" on the astronauts for several reasons.
Kate Rubins, former astronaut and professor of computational and systems biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, explains that during a moonwalk, physical stress is elevated. For starters, "people are going to be sleep shifting," which means they'll barely rest. Moreover, the astronauts will be wearing the suits for up to nine hours and doing EVAs (extravehicular activities or spacewalks) every day. According to Rubins, the spacewalks she did outside the ISS were like doing multiple marathons in succession.
More:
https://www.bgr.com/2093009/nasa-artemis-2-spacesuits-problem-mobility/
